New Delhi: The CBI on Thursday questioned former Karanataka minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan in connection with I-Monetary Advisory (IMA) scam in which lakhs of Muslim investors were allegedly duped by the company promising them high returns using Islamic ways of investment, sources said.

On 20 July, Mansoor Khan, the mastermind of the I Monetary Advisory (IMA) Ponzi scam, was extradited to Delhi from Dubai. At present, he is in the custody of the ED. Along with ED, the SIT had issued a lookout circular to catch Khan.

Sources said today that former Karnataka food and civil supplies minister Zameer Ahmed Khan was called at the agency office where he was questioned by the CBI team probing the IMA scam.

The CBI has already filed its first charge sheet against alleged mastermind Mansoor Khan and others on 7 September — within eight days of taking over the case. The central agency had taken over the investigation into the case on 30 August night on the request of the Karanataka government, routed through the Centre, they said.

The company IMA and its subsidiaries had allegedly duped over 1,00,000 investors, all Muslims, promising high returns using Islamic ways of investment.

“It was alleged that the founder-director (Khan) of group of entities based at Bangalore had illegally collected deposits from the public in the form of investments in various Ponzi schemes such as monthly plan, education plan, marriage plan, etc., with a promise of getting high returns,” a CBI spokesperson had said after the FIR.

The lid went off the scam when Khan fled to Dubai, leaving behind a video message, saying that he was committing suicide because of “corruption in the state and central governments”

The alleged mastermind of the ponzi scam was arrested on 21 July on his arrival in New Delhi by the Enforcement Directorate and is currently in judicial custody.